Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

IRAQ: U.S. Plans to Add to Teams to Hunt for Iraqi Weapons
The New York Times International ^ | April 27, 2003 | STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Posted on 04/26/2003 6:44:32 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

April 27, 2003

U.S. Plans to Add to Teams to Hunt for Iraqi Weapons

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, April 26 — The Bush administration, concerned about the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq, is moving to triple the size of the team searching for scientists and for incriminating lethal materials. Some officials are even saying that they are losing hope of finding actual weapons.

Administration officials, some speaking publicly and some on condition of anonymity, insist that they remain entirely confident that evidence of illegal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs — as opposed to the weapons themselves — will accumulate in coming weeks and months, though perhaps slowly.

But to step up the pace, a military official said, about 1,000 military and scientific personnel will be added in coming weeks to the team trying to interview Iraqis who may have knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs and looking for evidence. Only 500 are doing this job now, with perhaps 150 actually searching and the rest providing backup and support.

"A fairly robust organization is going over there," said a military official. "It will also look for evidence of war crimes, terrorism connections, missing P.O.W.'s — anything it can find that will help get to the weapons of mass destruction."

Some officials say they think the United States should react more positively to the demand by France that United Nations inspectors certify that Iraq is free of unconventional weapons before economic penalties against the country are permanently lifted. Many United Nations members favor a return to Iraq by Hans Blix as an inspection leader as soon as the country is secure. Others say that a couple of hundred more experts, with or without Mr. Blix, cannot hurt and could actually help.

But theirs is a decidedly minority view. Even the State Department, which advocated trying to find the weapons using United Nations inspectors last fall, has no tolerance for asking those inspectors to return.

"Forget it," one official said. "On principle, we don't want the United Nations running around Iraq."

One official, discussing the American plans, said that despite some polls indicating that Americans do not care very much whether the weapons are found, White House officials are pressing the United States Central Command to step up the search for them because of worldwide skepticism that the main American rationale for the war was not proving to be true. "There's just a lot of pressure coming from the White House on this," an administration official said. "But Centcom is pushing back because they have other things to do — like securing the country and guarding its antiquities."

Administration officials and experts say that evidence of Iraq's illegal weapons programs will most likely consist of items like empty shells for chemical or biological weapons, labs that could be used to make arms and so-called precursor chemicals that could be converted to weapons use but could also be used for fertilizers, pesticides and the like.

"People are realizing that Saddam Hussein may not have stored the weapons themselves, in part because when you put chemical or biological agents into weapons, they deteriorate very rapidly," an administration official said. He and others said that if the weapons themselves — the "smoking gun" that has eluded the United States since United Nations inspectors went into Iraq last fall — should not turn up, American experts may be forced to base their case for the existence of weapons programs on fragmentary evidence that could be interpreted in different ways.

"The evidence that we do find will be convincing to most experts, but not necessarily to those predisposed to doubt what we say," said an American official.

Another official said: "It may be that the Iraqis poured toxins into the ground, or scoured out their shells, or never filled their shells. There may be weapons, and there may not be."

"But it will be clear," the official continued, referring to weapons of mass destruction by their initials, "that they were pursuing W.M.D. actively."

The increasing possibility of a somewhat ambiguous result on weapons programs has led to a debate in the administration over what to do now that President Bush has decided that there will be no role for the United Nations inspectors in finding or destroying illegal weapons.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, like some in the administration, has argued that a United Nations team of some sort may be necessary to ratify a conclusion that weapons programs existed. The point, some officials say, would be to convince skeptics that weapons programs were indeed there. "The big concern is credibility," a military official said. "When we say we have found something, are the media sources in the Middle East and other parts of the world going to believe it?"

While it appears that Mr. Blix's team will not be allowed to return soon, some State Department officials say that some kind of United Nations team might be acceptable eventually to help verify incriminating evidence or to destroy it.

"If there were a role for the United Nations on weapons, it would be different from the one they had before," said an administration official. "It's too early to say what their role would be. It's too early to say that there will be no role."

France has threatened to withhold its vote on lifting the permanent sanctions against Iraq until there is some agreement on the role for the United Nations in weapons inspections and destruction. French officials say this is faithful to the United Nations resolutions that were based on a finding that Iraq, in defiance of the world community, had such weapons. "How can we just walk away from what the sanctions were all about?" a French official asked.

Americans say there is no room for negotiating with the French on lifting sanctions if the issue is United Nations weapons inspectors. They accuse France of having a hidden agenda: ensuring contracts for French companies in an Iraqi reconstruction program paid for with revenues from Iraqi oil exports.

One problem is that American officials who now say they may not find actual weapons have changed their arguments somewhat. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told the United Nations that the United States had evidence of actual weapons, not just weapons programs.

Indeed, he suggested that some of those weapons were ordered sent into the field before the war. Now there is some doubt about that because some experts say that if there had been intelligence on their deployment, there should have been intelligence to help Americans find them.

"There are still holes in what Iraq reported it had," said Raymond Zilinskas, director of the chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. "The Iraqis always said they destroyed the materials we know they had, but they never offered proof."

But like some experts, Mr. Zilinskas said he doubted that the Iraqis had actually started up weapons programs after a first round of inspections ended in 1998. That does not mean that elements of weapons programs cannot be found now in Iraq, he said, only that the weapons themselves may not be there.

"The British and now the Americans have been changing their tune," said Mr. Zilinskas, who was a weapons inspector in Iraq in the mid-1990's. "Before, they said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ready to go. The British said they were on the shelf and could have been deployed within 45 minutes."

But in the face of doubts like those expressed by Mr. Zilinskas, an administration official said: "Remember the quagmire that we were supposed to be in during the war? Don't start saying we're in a quagmire on the weapons. We'll find them."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; metalpha; wmdhunt
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 04/26/2003 6:44:32 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Gosh, they said we'd never find proof of links to terrorists, either.

The fact that WMD were not used against our troops is not evidence that they didn't exist. A little patience on the part of the press might be in order.

2 posted on 04/26/2003 6:51:41 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: arkady_renko; ohioWfan; John H K; MississippiMan; Diogenesis; cardinal4; Wolfstar; lstanle; ...
But in the face of doubts like those expressed by Mr. Zilinskas, an administration official said: "Remember the quagmire that we were supposed to be in during the war? Don't start saying we're in a quagmire on the weapons. We'll find them."

Related article:

Suspicious Iraqi Drums - UPDATE

3 posted on 04/26/2003 6:56:13 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Where is Saddam? and where is Tom Daschle?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
Right!

Check the link at post #3.
4 posted on 04/26/2003 6:57:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Where is Saddam? and where is Tom Daschle?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"we don't want the United Nations running around Iraq.""

Right-o. The UN has an institutional interest in NOT finding WMD

5 posted on 04/26/2003 7:19:55 PM PDT by cookcounty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
You should have added the Doom and Gloom Alert. I couldn't stomach past the first 'graph.
6 posted on 04/26/2003 7:32:16 PM PDT by Maigrey (Member of the Dose's Jesus Freaks, Purple Aes Sedai , Jack Straw Fan Club, and Gonzo News Service)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
After the recent documents found .. The French can taken their demands and stuff it where the sun don't sun
7 posted on 04/26/2003 7:39:40 PM PDT by Mo1 (I'm a monthly Donor .. You can be one too!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
More liberal bs. They can't really search for weapons until the get the country pacified. They are still fighting, for God's sake. This is just the latest quagmire, bogged down, overran the supply lines, not enough troops, anti-Bush BS.
8 posted on 04/26/2003 7:57:43 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
The Bush administration, concerned about the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq, is moving to triple the size of the team searching for scientists and for incriminating lethal materials. Some officials are even saying that they are losing hope of finding actual weapons.

BS.

They've only looked at 90 sites.

9 posted on 04/26/2003 8:18:38 PM PDT by Howlin (The Trojan Horse was a "gift," wasn't it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Maigrey
LOL.........that's where I stopped, too!
10 posted on 04/26/2003 8:19:45 PM PDT by Howlin (The Trojan Horse was a "gift," wasn't it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
That chemical weapons weren't used means they had no air ability, because we owned the air. Chemical weapons against fellow Iraqis were always delivered from the sky.
11 posted on 04/26/2003 8:25:53 PM PDT by GraniteStateConservative (Putting government in charge of morality is like putting pedophiles in charge of children.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Bring in the Blixman! He'll find 'em!

12 posted on 04/26/2003 8:28:16 PM PDT by Nick Danger (The liberals are slaughtering themselves at the gates of the newsroom)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nick Danger
OH , Priceless!

ROFL!!

13 posted on 04/26/2003 9:10:20 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Where is Saddam? and where is Tom Daschle?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Mind-numbed Robot
This operational pause is just killing me!

Oh, wait...we won.

Good to see you!

14 posted on 04/26/2003 10:14:08 PM PDT by dixiechick2000
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
The fact that WMD were not used against our troops is not evidence that they didn't exist.

That's EXACTLY what I've been telling the liberals I debate on the net, but they wont listen. That's their logic: "If Saddam had all of these weapons, how come he didnt use them? If he had them, he would have used them."

15 posted on 04/27/2003 5:21:23 AM PDT by lowbridge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: lowbridge
I can predict how it will go:

  1. WMD's will be found. The leftists will say they were not enough to justify an invasion.
  2. WMD's will be found in increasing quantities. The leftists will say they weren't of sufficient power to justify an invasion.
  3. Truly nasty WMD's will be found. The leftists will say they were too buried, out of reach or operationally ineffective.

I predict, with no real surprise, that the leftists will never acknowledge the truth, never relent, and never admit they were wrong. We see this attitude warming up among the anti-war people here on FR.

Regards, Ivan

16 posted on 04/27/2003 5:24:34 AM PDT by MadIvan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
My advice to the GOP:

Declare victory over Iraq, declare the discovery of WMD, declare the discovery of Al Qaeda links.

AND BE DONE WITH IT

Asking, and waiting, for 'Rat/France/UN approval and confirmation is a fool's game.

Refuse to even discuss the question in the future.

The 'Rats will do a Florida 2000, and will be emboldened by GOP pious wimps who give voice to 'Rats inevitable doubts.

17 posted on 04/27/2003 5:30:15 AM PDT by Enduring Freedom (To smash the ugly face of Socialism is our mission)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
  1. WMD's will be found. The leftists will say they were not enough to justify an invasion.
  2. WMD's will be found in increasing quantities. The leftists will say they weren't of sufficient power to justify an invasion.
  3. Truly nasty WMD's will be found. The leftists will say they were too buried, out of reach or operationally ineffective.

4: The leftists will accuse Bush of having planted the WMD.

I predict, with no real surprise, that the leftists will never acknowledge the truth, never relent, and never admit they were wrong. We see this attitude warming up among the anti-war people here on FR.

Agreed.

18 posted on 04/27/2003 5:51:43 AM PDT by lowbridge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I don't think anyone cares about WMD now. The vast majority support the war whether WMD are found or not. And the anti-war Left and the Dims won't ever like it anyway. So the WMD issue is more likely to drive the Dims to the left and make them less electable next year. That is the real import of WMD in Iraq: a hit on clueless Dims by their own anti-war activists.

Politically speaking, I'm almost hoping we find no WMD at all. Or just destroy them quietly. And then sit back and watch the Dims tear themselves apart for a while.
19 posted on 04/27/2003 5:54:30 AM PDT by George W. Bush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
More BS Bilge by the NY Slimes, posing as an oped news article.
20 posted on 04/27/2003 8:00:15 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Being a Monthly Donor to Free Republic is the Right Thing to do!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson